Area heroes honored on Memorial Day

Tuesday

May 29, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Hundreds of residents throughout the county watch Memorial Day ceremonies.

By JEFF ADELSONSun staff writer

Tina Burkett-Hunt held a photograph of her nephew Monday as a squad of law enforcement officers fired a three-volley salute, their guns pointed over a service member's memorial at Forest Meadows Cemetery.

Marine Lance Cpl. Tomorio Burkett, who spent some of his youth in Gainesville, was killed by friendly fire in Iraq in March 2003, just days after the war began.

Though the family is still pained by the 21-year-old's death, Burkett-Hunt said being able to find support among the 200 people who showed up for the cemetery's Memorial Day ceremonies has been an important part of their recovery.

"It's hard when you lose a young man like him," she said. "But for his life and death to be validated by other young men who also served helps."

Hundreds of residents throughout Alachua County took time Monday to watch the often elaborate ceremonies that accompany Memorial Day, complete with military-style drill teams, rifle salutes and speeches on the importance of remembering those who sacrificed for their country.

At Forest Meadows, which has now held ceremonies on the holiday for three years, Navy Capt. William Pokorny Jr. told those in attendance that though tragic, the sacrifices of American troops have been important to protect the freedoms that make the country envied throughout the world.

"We can pay for it with our tax dollars or we can pay for it with the blood of our sons and daughters," said Pokorny, a former naval aviator who served as commander of the University of Florida's Naval ROTC. "All too frequently it's both."

Pokorny said he was saddened that more people had not turned out for the service, arguing it was more important to remember those that have died than to enjoy more common Memorial Day activities such as barbecues.

Combined with what he described as a lack of education about military history in American public schools, he said Americans today did not learn of the importance of those who sacrificed for their country.

"If we could ask what they wanted, they'd say, 'Not to be forgotten,'" he said.

At the Veteran's Affairs Medical Center on Archer Road, elected officials and former service members also paid their respects to those who had fallen, with a crowd of about 200 people, including a large number of veterans, looking on.

Cary Hill, the commanding officer of Gainesville's Milton Lewis Young Marines, said he believed the holiday was important to ensure people remember the important role of the military.

"I think that's a part of any education. They need to remember what keeps this country free," Hill said.

Visual reminder

While other memorials involved less ceremony, their organizers said they hoped they would have an impact.

About 3,800 miniature headstones lined a mile-long stretch of NW 8th Avenue throughout the day Monday, commemorating those killed in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anti-war activist Scott Camil, a member of Veterans for Peace, and about 50 other volunteers made the headstones - each of which included information about a specific service member - and placed them in 954 rows of four along the mile-long Solar Walk on NW 8th Avenue at 4:30 Monday morning. The effort was designed to show people the impact of the war in the way reading a number in a newspaper can't, Camil said.

"It forces people to look at what we've invested so far in terms of the youth," he said. "And what have we gotten for that investment."

At the western end of the Solar Walk, the display's organizers had left room for the headstones that will be needed as the war continues.

"There were 18 more (deaths reported) yesterday, and I don't have those out there," Camil said. "I can't keep up."